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Saturday, August 04, 2012

Rum and Date Cake with Caramel Sauce

It’s been quite a wet and windy week over here. While the Western world is somewhere in the
middle of summer frolic, we are stranded (pun intended) in our rainy season…monsoon
rains, buffeting winds, floods, wonky internet, and the occasional power
outage. I swear next year I’ll be buying
myself some cute rain boots instead of stubbornly amassing flip flops and sandals
all year long. It may seem, to me at least, counter-intuitive to buy rubber boots when, for most of the year, you are in
varying states of melting, but any rainy morning at the market (with feet
totally soaked) will tell you otherwise.

The rainy season’s gray clouds do have their silver
lining though: cozying up to a bowl of steaming tinola, sinigang, or bulalo…not
having to deal (so much) with the heat…the electricity bill going down (!!)…snuggles
under the duvet…hot chocolate…

It’s also the most comfortable season in our tropical
year for baking. Not that we don’t bake
at any other time. Just that, with the
rain pouring outside, cooling down my city’s steamy pavements, a warm oven
actually seems, for once, halfway inviting.

And, of course, baking has the added bonus of creating an end-product
that adds brightness to otherwise dreary days.
Especially when combined with rum and caramel.

- Place the dates, prunes, raisins, boiling water, rum,
and baking soda in the bowl of a food processor and leave for about 10
minutes. Process the mixture until smooth. Resist the urge to spoon a splodge of it into
a shot glass to top with more rum and turn into the most indecent
dessert/cocktail/shooter ever. Set
aside.

- Place the flour and sugar in a bowl and mix to
combine. To this add the butter,
vanilla, eggs, and the date/rum mixture.
Mix well to combine.

- Pour the batter into a well greased bundt pan (3.5
liter capacity) and bake in a pre-heated 160C (325F) oven for 55-60 minutes or
until cooked when tested with a skewer.
Allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire
rack to cool completely.

- While your cake is baking you can make the caramel
sauce. Place the butter, sugar, syrup, cream,
and rum in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is
dissolved. Bring to a boil and cook for
10-12 minutes, or until thickened.

- Allow both the cake and sauce to cool completely before
pouring the sauce over the cake. I like
to pour some sauce on the cake and save some to serve alongside it.

I knew I had to make this cake the moment I saw it
gracing the cover of Donna Hay magazine’s April/May 2012 Autumn issue (bit of
trivia: autumn and winter are usually my favorite issues for all food
magazines). It was dark and beguiling,
and involved dates and prunes and rum.
And caramel. And a bundt pan (I
so had been wanting to use that bundt pan!).
Before I tell you that I and my not-too-hot-about-cakes husband loved
it, I need to let you know that the making of it did not go totally without a
hitch. The cake stuck to the pan
(despite my having greased it generously as the recipe instructed) and the
caramel split.

What, me panic?

I gently (gently!) extricated the cake parts stuck at the
bottom of the pan and patched them onto the top of the bundt, fitting each part
as precisely as I could. The split
caramel took a bit more elbow grease.
After extensive research telling me that split caramel which was already finished
cooking had no hope of being remedied I decided to take matters into my own
hands. I was not giving up and I was not
throwing a batch of perfectly tasty caramel out. I let the caramel sit and split completely,
which is to say I let all the butter that had split float to the top. I then skimmed that all off. Then I placed the remaining caramel in a
metal bowl, and placed the metal bowl into another bowl filled with ice water. Finally, I took a whisk in my hand and beat
the living daylights out of it. Before I
knew it, the caramel was smooth and creamy again. When there’s a will, there’s a way. Just so you know.

Was it worth it?
Every second. The cake was incredibly
moist, as only a cake packed with rum-soaked-then-blitzed dates, prunes, and
raisins can be. It was tender and damp,
with a deep, dark, vaguely adult flavor.
Smother a slice with the rum-infused caramel and you go up the audacity
ladder more than a few notches.

Just as you should never let a little rain and the lack
of rain boots stop you from going to the market, you should never allow such trivialities
like cake sticking to your pan (fie on you faithless bundt pan!) or split
caramel stop you from enjoying something delicious.

**I have no clue where to find self-rising flour in
Manila, nor have I ever had any need for it.
I just use this formula: for each cup of all purpose flour, add 1 1/4
teaspoons baking powder + 1/4 teaspoon salt.

***Tragically, golden syrup is not available anywhere on my
islands. I used a mixture of corn syrup
and honey and it worked fine.

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh the site of the oozing caramel alone is mouthwatering already! i'm going to make some of that to dip some store brought butter cake on it since i don't have baking equipment yet (bookmarking this though and will definitely try it in the future).

Ha don't be fooled by that so called summer here in europe as I think it might pretty much resemble your monsoon at times. It's been wet and not summery at all. Perfect I would think for such a gorgeous cake!

Hi Simone! Oh no! Although I have experienced strange summer weather in Europe too -- a wild sun/rain/hail day in Zurich comes to mind! I think, no matter what weather, we will always find a way to justify cake ;)

Hi Anh! I love it! I'm sure yours will look much more sophisticated than mine! :)

I love your description of how you showed that wayward caramel and Bundt pan who was boss. And speaking of boss...that cake looks to die for. Thanks for all the useful tips. Will keep in mind for when I finally gather the courage to venture into baking.

Wow that cake looks divine and I love that caramel sauce! I've had cake stuck to my bundt tin too...maybe dusting with flour will help!Thanks for visiting my blog earlier. I accidentally deleted your comment while scrolling on my phone, so I didn't get to read it! ;-)

You had me at rum and dates. And then you threw in the caramel sauce? Get out! Omg, this photo is so inviting! Bookmarking this. Even if it's summer here, I MUST BAKE this cake! Thanks for sharing the recipe. Glad to hear you and your family are fine inspite of the floods. Take care & God bless, Joey! Thanks for all the blog-visits & warm tweets :-)

Hi! Was googling for a recipe for rum cake and stumbled upon this blog! Awesome recipe :) Just wanted to say you might be able to get some of Lyle's golden syrup at union jack tavern in Alabang. Sometimes they have it, sometimes they don't but they stock pretty often. I was able to buy some back in 2010, hope that helps!